KU Elevate: How Uber is changing transportation

Thanks to Uber, you might someday give up your car keys — and all the expenses that go with it — says Lawrence native and KU grad Brian McClendon.
“Taxis are not Uber’s competitors. Uber is trying to compete with owning a car,” McClendon says in a TED Talk-style presentation Oct. 16, 2015, at KU’s Edwards Campus.
McClendon, Uber’s vice president of advanced technologies, says 70 percent of Americans can now pull up Uber’s app on a phone, hit a button, and expect an Uber driver to show up in under 10 minutes. In many large cities, that wait time is getting much shorter: 5 minutes in Kansas City, 3.4 minutes in New York City, even down to 2.4 minutes in San Francisco.
Another service, UberPool, which has been launched in 11 cities, is also proving cheaper than owning a car for those going 10,000 miles a year — $12,200 for owning versus $10,500 for using UberPool, he says.
“Now we’re starting to make a big impact on car ownership.”